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Hamish Runcet
Hamish Runcet, known as the Vestal Verger, is the now-retired mystic of the Church of Saint Edwy's in Sluicegate Weirs, England. Background Runcet began work as mystic in 1889 and during his time there never allowed the sanctuary light to go out. In 1903 he ceased using beeswax for candles when he was collecting a bouquet of bishop's buttons and found the pollen collection process by bees to be unclean (noted in his autobiography Exfoliations from a Blazing Tulip). After which he began using human earwax. Runcet's account of an angel finishing his church cleaning was told in his letter to Clotilde, the Man Nun, and his ability to read the mind of his parishioners was well-known until he lost his clairvoyance due to a blow to the head. Following this, Runcet began rhabdomancy and unearthed an assortment of trinkets now on display in the church sacristy. Today he makes indulgence bags for children in his Kentish oast house and still issues predictions, the most recent (at the time of printing) being those published on the feast of All Hallows, 1965: * President Lyndon Johnson will turn out to be a brass automaton, with clockwork insides, operated from the planet Buggog. * Charles de Gaulle will turn out to be the angel Abdiel, whose mission it will be to reverse the earth's spin. * Bishop Pike will be burned at the stake at the Rose Bowl stadium in 1980 by Governor Wayne. * A Jesuit Air Force will bomb world centers of atheism. * The statue of this Pope Pius XII in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral will be given the power to see and hear and will some day rule New York. Giacomo Puccini's opera Il Monasterio Segreto is based on the verger's early life. Inspiration The Name * Hamish is a masculine name, derived from the Scottish Gaelic Seumas (“shay-mas”), the equivalent to the English James''Wikipedia: ''Hamish. * Runcet: Latin conjugate of the verb to weed (to clear weeds, to thin out, to root up)Wiktionary: Runco. The Title * Vesta was the ancient Roman goddess of hearth, home, and family and the gentlest of all the gods, never leaving her home on Mount OlympusWikipedia: Vesta (mythology). Seldom depicted, her form was that of a sacred flame, similar to that seen in her temple, where priestesses known as Vestal Virgins dedicated themselves to serving Vesta and keeping the ceremonial fire from being extinguished. Vestals usually spent three decades in service (hence perhaps Runcet's thirty year-plus run at Saint Edwy's): enrolled before they were ten years old, they spent a decade in training, another in service, and a final decade of training replacements. Once completed, the women were able to renounce their vow of celibacy and marryWikipedia: Vestal Virgin. * A verger is an assistant in religious services, a silent escort of the religious leaders as they move about the church. The title comes from the ceremonial rod that may have been used in previous centuries to keep back crowds from his escortWikipedia: Verger. Hence perhaps Runcet's later interest in rhabdomancy, or rod divination. The Character Runcet may be based on a famous nineteenth century French mystic, Saint Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney (1786-1859), known as the Curé of Ars who was a renowned confessor, because he knew the sins people had confessed before they were able to tell them to himWikipedia: John Vianney. References Runcet Runcet Runcet